Sunday, May 31, 2009

Un-broke: You don't know how to manage your money, so rich people are going to tell you how.


Friday night, I had just finished eating leftover stirfry and was looking forward to watching Super Nanny before going out for drinks. But Jo was nowhere to be found. Instead, like a public service announcement, Un-Broke interrupted regular Friday night broadcasting (and all of the pleasure I derive from seeing Jo's healthy discipline technique) to tell me that I need to be frugal.


The show is right. Americans have been dwelling in an increasingly borrowed reality that we do not own. We have way too many credit cards, debt up the ass, and all we have to show for it are heaping piles of junk we don't need. It's toxic on every level, from the damage to our psyches, to our growing fat asses.


Seth Green's Cribs parody (above) was perhaps the gem of the show. As a common man, he gives us a tour of his extremely modest dwelling (a 1 bedroom ranch style) while still employing the rich gangster vernacular. Case in point: " Keep yer spending tight, and your money on your mind."
We are shown a "state-of-the-art play station", which amounts to a pile of a boardgames; "bubbly," or bubble bath soap that he uses to clean his feet, and a luxurious plastic kiddy pool that is filled with "hose"... you get the picture.


This is what we should all be doing... living within our means. And that's great. This is what Americans need to hear. Too often, like the Cribs show Green was parodying, we are given rich celebrities to emulate, glamorizing consumerism and luxury. Green says:
"We're in a culture that emphasizes a lot of importance on financial wealth... so I'm concerned for all of America's youth who grew up watching [MTV's] My Super Sweet 16 and Cribs. They have such different goals and aspirations. You can't fault kids for their influences. Kids only learn what you tell them."
My only caveat is I sensed an underlying tongue-in-cheekness not just toward the Cribs show, but to the commonman austerity the clip was ostensibly idolizing. While it was extremely amusing to see juxtaposed a hood language of the rapping rich with modest living arrangements, it perhaps overemphasized the gap between the two. That is to say, seeing a kiddy pool might not make us think of poverty straightaway, but when you say "Staying cool by the pool" which elicits images of relaxing near a fancy pool, but then shoot to the kiddy pool, disappointing our expections, it simply exacerbates the jealousy we feel toward the wealthy.

It certainly does not help that during the course of the show, it is the super wealthy that are telling us how to manage our money, Green included. It is quite patronizing. Green, Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, the Jonas Brothers (perhaps most insulting of all), none of them have to deal with the realities of money management or austerity. They can continue to enjoy all of the luxury they desire, including multimillion dollar mansions. But it is they who are telling us to behave with our money, to only buy a shitty 1-bedroom ranch style home so as to keep housing costs at less than 1/3 of our total income. Easy for them to say.


In sum, the show was good. It attempted to inculcate values that have long since vanished from the US, first and foremost frugality and austerity. But the message might have resonated a little better with lesser known actors (whom we don't recognize for their lavish spending.) Although, I suppose then there might be less incentive to watch. You just can't win :)

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Work it girl! Or Lady Gaga's recipe for success


She's all the rage. I have heard Poker Face, but don't hear anything particularly unique. For all the hype, Lady Gaga sounds like generic dance pop.

But to see Gaga is anything but generic. While critics say she's simply stealing David Bowie's style, she is a unique sight to behold. And I have to admit that I am jealous of the no pants thing... in my dreams, I am a pop star who rocks leotards and freak'em dresses as a quotidian. It is refreshing to see a female artist subverting traditional images of feminine sexiness. (Although I would be interested to read a feminist take on her... it could be argued she is simply playing into those images.)

In the new RS, she says

"I operate from a place of delusion... I used to walk down the street like a fucking star... I want ppl to walk around delusional about how great they can be - and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth."
On one level, it's super exciting to subscribe to this - to strut around the streets like you own them (I confess :) and perhaps play into the illusion of one day becoming rich and famous. But this idea is uniquely American, isn't it? To believe that the key to success is placed soley on the shoulders of the individual, that by working or fighting hard enough, wealth and fame will come.

But we know that fame and wealth are matters of chance, of being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. There are also powerful social forces, especially poverty, in play that would prevent the majority of would be divas from stardom. (Yes, believe it or not, America, there are social classes in the United States.) Simply believing you'll be wealthy (delusion) will not make you wealthy, no matter how many times Oprah or Lady Gaga tells you otherwise. I can keep strutting my little ass around the streets of Columbus, but I am not gonna be picked up by a modeling agency and catapulted into success, now am I?

Any thoughts, my precious (few) readers?

Friday, May 22, 2009

Regarding my decision to go to graduate school at OSU as opposed to Columbia

It has been a long long time since I last blogged. I was distracted by another blog (sorry for this infidelity, my dear Painting) and an issue of grave importance. All of my work at applying to graduate school culminated in my being accepted to Columbia's MA program in Sociology. A dream come true no? Casey and I had been struggling with the idea of staying in Columbus for two more years, and we both wanted to move to NYC.

Well no actually. Below is the email I received from Columbia in regards to admittance. Note that I only received this email of admittance after having emailed the school in the middle of April to get the status of my application. In other words, they had simply forgotten to notify me.

Dear Mr. Adams,
I am sorry that you have not received notification of your admission status... The faculty admissions committee in Sociology, unfortunately, was unable to offer you admission to the PhD program. However, you and a select few other applicants were offered admission to the Master of Arts degree program. The department could enroll only 7 new PhD students this year and thus many fine applicants could not be offered admission to the PhD. And this year, because of the financial situation, we has to cut back the number of offers of admission. But since your application showed promise, the faculty offered admission to the MA program.
Great, I thought! I cannot tell you the sheer joy I experienced upon receiving this email. This was it. It was perfect. I was going to Columbia, an Ivy League school. No one could refuse me admittance into a PhD program with the brandname of Columbia on my CV. And Casey and I would move and all would be glorious.

Then, reality sunk in. First, the program I was admitted to was the free standing masters program, and it was designed for business people (gag) and public policy makers. Why was I admitted to this program in the first place? I have absolutely no experience whatsoever in anything practical or applied. I only know theory.

Further, the program was unfunded. The tuition for the one year was lower than expected... only $17K, which I feel is a manageable and even reasonable amount of debt for a masters degree. However, combined with the exorbitant cost of living in NYC and the fact that I later discovered that my bf would not be able to move with me right away, so I would have to find roommates or pay for a closet on my own, makes this choice less glamorous. In fact, I might be committing financial suicide by going there.

The job situation is tenuous enough right now. To move to NY without any prospect for a job is frankly foolish for me. And even if I were to get a job or two, (which I would have to do!!) most of my time then would be spent on making money to keep afloat in the city, not on graduate work, which should be my number 1 focus right now. All of these difficulties are exacerbated by the fact that the Columbia program is one year... simply not enough time to produce a glorious, publishable thesis that could guarantee admittance into a FUNDED PhD program.

Then there is good old OSU. I received their admittance letter the day I returned from Africa. OSU is relatively cheap, Columbus is so so so cheap, and the geography program here is top 5 in the nation. Also, the MA here is research and theory oriented, so I don't have to worry about all that practical applicaiton bs. I'll have two comfortable years in which I can apply to PhD programs and produce a kick ass thesis. Also, I was recently rehired by WOSU to answer phones and do research for Open Line. This is such a great job!! :) I get paid next to nothing, but it is 20 hours a week, M-F (so weekends off.. yay to cheap beer at Bodega happy hour) and I love it. What more can you ask for honey?? (As my gma would say.)

I still get sick to my stomach when I think about throwing away the opportunity at Columbia. Was this my chance to make the transition to New York and get my foot in the door of a top ranked school/program? Maybe. Am I throwing it away? I look at it as putting into a treasure chest and locking it up for a couple of years, and then getting it out and seizing the opportunity when I have funding and can actually afford NYC (and by afford, I still mean struggle to survive on a stipend of 23k when at least half of it will go to rent.)

And I am in such a zen place right now. I am happy here in Columbus. I have a lovely apartment, I can comfotably afford to splurge every now and then. And I have my bf as a partner crime. I think this is a much more conducive environment to academic/intellectual stimulation than waiting tables 12 hours a day to just make rent.

So there's my explanation and justification for not accepting Columbia's offer. You may call me a fool. Maybe even complacent (please don't call me that, it's my biggest fear in the world.) But in the end, Columbus and OSU just feel right right now.


"When you get the blanket thing, you can relax, because everything you could ever want or be, you already have and are." - Bernard Jaffe, I Heart Huckabees